Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $90.11, but opened at $100.10. Applied Optoelectronics shares last traded at $92.3650, with a volume of 3,227,969 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAOI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Applied Optoelectronics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Applied Optoelectronics in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on Applied Optoelectronics from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Optoelectronics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.80.

Applied Optoelectronics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 3.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -144.82 and a beta of 3.69. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $143.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.11.

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ:AAOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $151.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.98 million. Applied Optoelectronics had a negative net margin of 8.55% and a negative return on equity of 4.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 51.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. Applied Optoelectronics has set its Q2 2026 guidance at -0.030-0.030 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Applied Optoelectronics

In other news, insider Shu-Hua (Joshua) Yeh sold 1,285 shares of Applied Optoelectronics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.02, for a total value of $154,225.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 392,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,158,498.44. The trade was a 0.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Chih-Hsiang (Thompson) Lin sold 59,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.53, for a total transaction of $9,825,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,302,436 shares in the company, valued at approximately $216,894,667.08. The trade was a 4.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 501,500 shares of company stock valued at $86,812,999. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Optoelectronics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AAOI. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Applied Optoelectronics by 1,923.7% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 769 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Optoelectronics by 166.7% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Optoelectronics during the second quarter valued at approximately $57,000. 61.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc develops and manufactures high-speed fiber-optic networking products designed to support the growing bandwidth demands of data centers, telecommunications carriers and internet content providers. The company’s core offerings include pluggable optical transceiver modules, transponders and optical components that enable data transmission at rates ranging from 1G to 400G. These products are used to facilitate long-haul, metro and intra-data center connectivity, addressing the need for scalable, low-latency and energy-efficient solutions in modern network infrastructures.

The company’s product portfolio spans small-form factor pluggable modules such as SFP+, QSFP+ and QSFP28 units, as well as more advanced form factors like CFP2 and OSFP for ultra-high-speed applications.